Module 4: Networking for Career Advancement
4.4 Leveraging Your Network
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Note: The audio transcript is available in the footnotes.
Ask for an informational interview
Informational interviews are valuable opportunities to gain insights from professionals about their career paths and professions. It involves sitting down with a professional to ask questions and learn about their experiences. The process begins by identifying someone whose career or expertise you admire and reaching out to them.
Try this: If you attend a conference and you are inspired by the speaker and want to seek further guidance from them, you can approach them after the event and introduce yourself and request to stay in touch. Following up with an email and express your interest in learning more and asked for a brief 10 to 15-minute conversation to discuss their career path.
Professionals are often willing to share their stories
Professionals are often willing to share their experiences and provide guidance to those starting their journey. This highlights the importance of reaching out to professionals, whether through personal networks or platforms like LinkedIn, to arrange informational interviews.
These interviews offer a platform for professionals to share their knowledge and insights, knowing they are assisting someone embarking on a similar path. Therefore, it’s essential to identify individuals with shared passions or professions, draft a polite email requesting an informational interview, and be mindful of their time and schedule. Overall, informational interviews are valuable tools for learning and networking in various fields.
Successful informational interview
Successfully navigating an informational interview involves thorough preparation and the ability to establish a personal connection with the professional being interviewed. Go through the table below to thoroughly prepare for a successful informational interview.
| Before the interview |
Conduct research
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| During the interview |
Build a connection
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| After the interview |
Show gratitude
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| Seeing interviews as a learning opportunity |
Reflect on the interview process
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Request a job referral from your network
Referrals are powerful acts of putting in a good word or recommendation for someone. We encounter referrals in everyday situations, like suggesting a restaurant or a store to a friend. Professionals value giving referrals because they understand their potential to significantly enhance someone’s chances of securing an opportunity, like an internship or a job. For instance, if you are seeking an internship, reaching out to the advisor with a clear expression of intent and a request for assistance can yield positive results.
Be proactive not reactive
The process involves informing the advisor of your summer plans and internship aspirations, followed by a request for any connections that could facilitate the desired opportunity. This proactive approach emphasizes the importance of reaching out to individuals who may have the necessary connections to help fulfill career goals. Crafting a concise and polite email requesting assistance in securing the desired opportunity demonstrates initiative and may lead to valuable connections and referrals.
Audio transcript for Module 4.4 Leveraging Your Network
You’ve been at your junior marketing assistant role for the past year, but now you decide it’s finally time to up your online networking game. Armed with your laptop and a cup of coffee, that’s more sugar than caffeine, you open LinkedIn like it’s the gates to the career kingdom.
You stare at your profile picture for a solid five minutes, contemplating whether the world is ready for the sheer brilliance that is your professional selfie. It’s not. But you upload it anyway. You’ve got a bio to write, and suddenly you face an existential crisis – how do you summarize your existence in 200 characters or less without sounding like an overachieving robot?
Now, the real fun begins. You embark on a connection spree, adding everyone from your high school friend’s cousin’s pet iguana to the CEO of a company you’ve never heard of, but sounds fancy. You’re practically a Linkedin influencer, spreading digital cheer and desperation.
As you scroll through your feed, you attempt to share an insightful article about blockchain technology. The only problem? You barely understand blockchain, and the article might as well have been written in ancient Greek. Your attempt at a profound comment ends up being more cryptic than the cryptocurrency itself.
But hey, you’re building an empire, one awkward connection at a time. Who knew expanding your professional network could be so simultaneously empowering and cringe-worthy? Here’s to the wild world of online networking – where your career dreams and questionable memes collide.
